Tag Archives: Everyday Stuff

You never know what kinds of things are going to be made in this household. From the dead ambiguous fruit tree in our front yard, I give you homemade wooden spoons. Carved and gouged with great detail by my sweetie, we now have a collection of spoons from the remnants of our deceased front yard tree. R.I.P. suspected fruit tree, we hardly knew thee alive, yet your being will live on in our kitchen for years to come.

There are many creative wood projects adorning our home, but there is really something super cool about utensils made by hand. The wood dictates how the spoon turns out, and now we have a plethora of options from serving spoons to baking spoons (long and narrow for stirring batter) to a risotto spoon.

When this beauty arrived in the kitchen last night, I admired its angle and I had a hunch that it would be just perfect for something. This spoon’s moment came tonight when I was making a pot of pumpkin risotto (also known as cleaning out the cupboards). The spoon really has a perfect angle for stirring and getting all of the arborio rice unstuck in the pot. I am loving my new spoon!

I’m sure the dead tree could have provided us with a night’s worth of campfire, but with some imagination and some work, you can give something a new life. You can turn something disposable into something useful and beautiful.

Even the smallest, most useful things in our lives can be beautiful. Take the humble towel, existing solely to mop up our messes and dry off our bodies. Thankless towels spend the majority of their existence damp and in service. So, let’s do something to make these utilitarian instruments more aesthetically pleasing.

Let me state that I love embroidery! It is a mixture of sewing and painting and, as evidenced above, can liven up the standard. I am a fan of the old iron-on transfer patterns that you find in any general craft store. There are myriad themes from the super kitschy to the sweet. Embroidered tea towels make perfect housewarming gifts that can be personalized to your recipients tastes, from steelhead to martinis to pastoral scenes. These towels are both useful and charming.

Ready for service

Complimenting the embroidered towel is the knit towel. Made with 100% cotton, these towels are very absorbent and quick drying. There are many patterns online, or you can create your own very easily. If you love flat two-dimensional knitting projects like I do, then you’ll love making towels. And, washcloths. Knit washcloths are awesome for dishes: soft, reusable, non-smelly (like sponges), and scrubby. Washcloths are another super easy, meditative knitting project that elevate a utilitarian tool to something more.